The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

However the interesting thing is both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) AND the World Bank have told Singapore they’re not doing the right thing, especially as they had been told a limited number of activists would be allowed to attend the meeting.

According to the BBC, the World Bank is said to be “very displeased” with Singapore’s decision to bar 28 activists from the country.

They [and the IMF] argue the presence of pressure groups is key to improving the work of financial institutions.

“The most unfortunate thing is what appears to be a going-back on an explicit agreement,” World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz told about 50 activists in Singapore ahead of the annual meetings. “So far we’ve had no satisfactory explanation why,” he added.

The institutions added that they were particularly unhappy with the bans as they had signed an open access agreement in 2003.

“We work with these representatives of civil societies, and we value their role – even when we disagree with what they say,” a statement from the World Bank added.

Singapore had banned public protests for the duration of the IMF and World Bank meetings amid concerns they could lead to violence and damage to property. Following this ban, pressure groups and non-governmental organisations decided they would demonstrate on Batam Island – a small Indonesian island located close to Singapore by boat.

However, because Singapore desperately aims to please any country/government/institution that has financial power … they have quickly set aside an indoor area where the activists can gather and express their views. 

Trouble is it’ll probably become a little cramped as it is only an eight metre by eight metre square.

Gawd bless the Singapore Government … I bet they’re totally scratching their heads – unable to understand why any organisation would actually welcome views from people totally opposed to their own.

Maybe I can help …

You see it’s called democracy – something you preach but don’t always practice. 

However, to be fair to them, the organisation of the conference is bloody brilliant – and another great example of how in some circumstances, a dictatorship totally rocks!

With electronic companies investing billions of bucks to develop the next ‘big thing’ … I wonder how many have stopped and realised how important their brand ‘philosophy’ is in influencing the World’s reaction to their news.

Case in point: Apple.

Yep, Steve Jobs has gone and upgraded their iPOD Nano’s and Shuffles. Again.

OK, so there’s a few new features [and yes, the Shuffle does look great] … but it’s still essentially more of the same and yet all around the World, news channels happily put aside time and space to promote it like it was the 2nd coming.

That didn’t happen when SAMSUNG launched their 4gb music phone nor when SONY launched their new Alpha camera range … and yet by adding a little extra memory and a brighter light, Apple has got more global coverage than any ad campaign could hope to achieve.

Why?

Well, I think it’s because the public regard Apple as a company that has a passion to create great products before great profits.  They feel they are an organisation that wants to ‘do the right thing by the people’ and will spend time really crafting their products technically and aesthetically. 

And whilst there has been some mutterings about Apple and their new found ‘greed’ … compared to the faceless, corporately focused companies most of us encounter everyday, Apple continue to be seen as the ‘good guys’.

To be fair, they deserve it.

I’ve been lucky enough to work with them for many years  and without doubt, they really do give a damn about giving their customers the best ‘end-product’ possible. [Not just the best ‘end-product’ Apple can produce, but the best bar none]

And because of this, even when they have a massive disaster like the Newton [their version of the Palm Pilot] people still forgive them because they feel Apple are a company trying to do things for the right reasons, rather than simply aiming to make as much money as possible at consumers expense.

Of course there’s other factors in their success … the fact they were/are the underdog, the fact the graphic design industry use them, the fact they are synonymous with creativity rather than pure technology, the fact they have an incredibly charismatic ‘head’, the fact they make beautiful looking ‘stuff’ … but as much as the greatest growth for companies over the last few years has come from new product development rather than advertising, one of the key factors that has allowed certain companies to disproportionately succeed over others [apart from things like distribution, exploitation of new opportunities etc] has to be that they expressed [and lived] a ‘cultural philosophy’ that was clearly and compelling understood by the masses.

How ironic that a time where more and more companies are saying brand communication is of no value to them, the need for it [accepting the company has the biggest role to play in it], is more than ever.

Yesterday I bought an external, 80 gigabyte hard drive … about as big as an iPOD … for around 54 quid. FIFTY FOUR QUID … how good is that!!

Whereas once memory was at a premium … nowadays I have more available to me, than at any other point in my life.

I have a Thumbdrive with 1gb, a PSP with 2gb, a Digital Camera with 5gb, an HD Camcorder with 8gb, an XBox with 20gb, various iPOD’s with 1, 4, 6 and 30gb respectively, a PVR with 160gb and laptops totalling 350gb … hell, even my phone has 1gb – and yet I still felt the need to go out and buy another 80gigs!

Lets put this into context, it if was an iPOD, 80 gigs would hold 20,000 songs or 25,000 photos or 100 hours of video … what the hell do I need all that for?

What it means is that I never chuck things away.  I keep everything … from shitty photos and crappy songs, right through to awful TV shows and pointless emails … all cluttering up my life and serving no other purpose than to build the profits of technology companies.

Maybe I do it because I am busy and worry I may inadvertently chuck something away that I’ll need in the future … but we all know that’s a crap excuse, it’s because I consume ‘stuff’ with all the hunger of a shark in a pool of human legs! 

So I’ve decided to make a statement and that is from now on, I will always ‘delete‘ first and buy storage second … because if I don’t, I’m in danger of spending my life held back by the past rather than embracing what is going on around me today.

Anyone else feel like this or am I Mr Sad Man?

OK, lets get this straight, I love my other half dearly. 

Jill is funny, beautiful, warm, caring and smart … however just before she drops off to sleep, something weird happens to her and she becomes quite like Gareth from the TV Show, ‘The Office’.

What am I going on about?

Well, last night, at about 12:45am, she asked me this wonderful question …“If it meant you would live another 100 years, would you become part cyborg?” 

AND SHE WAS BEING SERIOUS!

So the question is, what weird and wonderful questions have you been asked by your other halves in the early hours of the morning and if I get enough comments, I might set up a completely new blog dedicated to this matter.

So come on … speak up … surely I can’t be the only one who suffers?

So I was on a Qantas plane this weekend, flicking through their ‘Duty Free’ mag when I came across this, errrrrrm, brilliant ‘Football Clock’.

OK, so it’s obvious that some bloke had a bunch of cheapo digital clocks and plastic footballs lying around his factory and decided to glue them together … but rather than sell them as cheap, plastic tat … the copywriter decided to come up with this amazing description.

OK, so I have no idea why it he called it a ‘HUMPTY’ clock … nor do I know why it gets you into the ‘Soccer Fever’ [other than a super-basic digital clock sits on a crappy, mini-football] but for sheer effort, I reckon this deserves an award. 

Any other examples of pointless rubbish being sold with a totally inappropriate write up?